From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 02/13
Date: 1997/02/14
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Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
[Wrestling TidBits]
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My doctoral thesis is is almost ready to be submitted; at this stage I am
just tweaking the wording here and there. I may submit it tomorrow (but may
wait until Monday). Either way, it means that in the coming week I will
update the various items I've neglected for some time. A final thanks for
your patience.
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Pictures of The Week
This week's pictures focus on two of the best young wrestlers in Japan.
First, we have Jun Akiyama in flight towards a hapless Dan Kroffat (now
Phil LaFon in the WWF). Second, we have Shinjiro Otani in flight towards a
hapless Negro Casas.
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[ Shinjiro Otani vs. Ultimo Dragon ] Shinjiro Otani battles with El Ultimo
Dragon; these are two of the best
wrestlers in the world. Both have worked in WCW. Dragon should be known for
his classic matches with Rey Misterio Jr. and Dean Malenko. Otani worked
the best match at Starrcade 1995, but otherwise wasn't really allowed to
shine in the promotion. If anything, he's even better than Dragon.
[ - RAW ] this past week (in Canada!) aired the second half of the matches
from the Toronto Triple Threat show at Skydome. Toronto is an
hour's drive from here, but after seeing the show, I'm glad I didn't bother
to make the trip. The wrestling was nothing special at all. The Toronto Sun
mentions that the ring entrances in the triangle match between Sid & Shawn
Michaels & Bret Hart took eight minutes, almost as much as the entire
match, which only lasted twelve.
[ - ] Marcus "Buff" Bagwell & Scott Norton & Masa Chono are working the
current New Japan tour as team NWO. As I'd hoped, Bagwell is getting
a bit of a push on the tour.
[ - ] The WWF airs a live two-hour special in the US tonight. It airs
tomorrow in Canada on TSN.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 02/16/97. Line-up features:
* Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin vs. Undertaker vs. Vader in a no DQ
elimination match for the WrestleMania WWF Title shot.
* Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs. Phil LaFond & Doug Furnas for the WWF
Tag Titles
[ - ] WCW has SuperBrawl on 02/23/97. Tentative line-up has:
* Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper for the WCW Title
* Kevin Nash & Scott Hall vs. Giant & Lex Luger for the Tag Titles
* Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho for the US Title
* Dean Malenko vs. Syxx for the Cruiserweight Title
* Steve Regal vs. Rey Misterio Jr. for the TV Title
* Steve McMichael vs. Jeff Jarrett, with the winner being a Horseman
* Kevin Sullivan vs. Chris Benoit
* Diamond Dallas Page vs. Big Bubba
* Harlem Heat vs. Steiners vs. Publis Enemy vs. Faces of Fear
* trios match, this time with all Mexican wrestlers
[ Hayabusa vs. Koji Nakagawa ] [ - ]Over the past many week's I've been
working quite intensely on my PhD
thesis. A stack of over 100 video tapes has accumulated (yikes!), so I've
got a lot of wrestling to get through. I have managed to watch a few things
in recent weeks, most notably this past Saturday when I was particularly
burned out. Here's a brief run-down.
Over time, I've snuck in a New Japan or All Japan TV show here and there,
so I'm now almost caught up on their TV, having watched from 09/22 to 12/29
TV. The highlights from New Japan were not many, although there were some
excellent junior tag matches. The highlights from All Japan were anything
involving Jun Akiyama! He was involved in more ****+ matches in this three
month period than many wrestlers have in their career. Sure, it helps to
have Misawa, Kawada, etc., around (;-)), but Akiyama has easily become one
of my favourites.
I also watched some of the All Japan Women stuff that has accumulated.
Flashbacks to 03/17/91 and 04/21/91, watching commercial tapes of each
show. This was the time frame when Monster Ripper (Rhonda Singh, most
recently Bertha Faye in the WWF) showed up to challenge Aja Kong and Bull
Nakano, and Debbie Malenko & the Moreno sisters were outsiders wrestling
for the group. Esther Moreno was just incredible back then; she has worked
for the group recently as Chiquita Azteca (under a hood), but she had much
more fire in this time frame. On the 03/17/91 show, there was an excellent
six-woman tag with the Morenos & Yumiko Hotta facing Mima Shimoda & Etsuko
Mita & Toshiyo Yamada. An easy ***3/4 match, it was extra fun to see Mita &
Shimoda before they started their sex-symbol phase. Manami Toyota
challenged Suzuka Manami for the All Pacific title, coming up short in an
excellent **** match. Suzuka is retired now, but she was one of my
favourites in this time frame. Akira Hokuto would go on to win the title on
04/29. On 03/17, Hokuto faced Aja Kong in a darn good ***3/4 match as well.
The show was capped by a tag, with Bull & Kyoko Inoue facing Bison Kimura &
Mika Takahashi. Mika's another wrestler who was missed after she retired.
This match was another solid ****.
The 04/21/91 show had an excellent **** match between the Morenos & Japan
Tag champs Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita, with the Morenos winning the title.
Esther was just incredible. This was the best match on a somewhat
disappointing show. The remaining matches hovered around ***1/2, excellent
for any other promotion, but not up to standards for this promotion at this
time. Debbie Malenko & Manami Toyota faced Kyoko Inoue & Bat Yoshinaga.
Right near the start, Debbie took a wicked kick to face from Bat, which
busted her nose. In the post match interview, the commentator, who speaks
broken English to Debbie so she can give some polite interview responses,
said, "Your nose busted, huh?"
On to more recent All Japan Women stuff: 01/22/96, 03/17/96 TV, 03/31/96.
01/22/96 had a remarkable WWWA Tag match between Akira Hokuto & Mima
Shimoda and Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue, an easy ****1/2 bout. The 03/17 TV
show was an attempt to build up the young stars, by having them against
senior wrestlers in every match; this hurt match quality, to be sure, but
some of the not-quite-so-young girls showed some promise. 03/31 was the
major Wrestling Queendom show, headlined by an incredible Kyoko Inoue vs.
Manami Toyota WWWA title match.
The last AJW tape I've watched feature the commercial tapes for shows from
06/09/96, 06/15/96, 05/03/96, and 02/12/96. There was more young stars vs.
older stars stuff, but there were still a few excellent **** matches, even
involving the younger girls in tag situations. In this setting, there is a
good likelihood of developing those young girls into much better wrestlers.
[ Terry Funk vs. Mr. Pogo ] Garbage Wrestling: the supremely unskilled Mr.
Pogo shortly before his paralyzing bump.
The Champ Forum TV show from 09/11/96 aired three FMW matches from
08/01/96. Sanjay Mohanta traded this tape to me; it's of interest primarily
because the video quality is excellent and the FMW show is backed with the
Rikidozan memorial show. I've watched the Champ Forum show. Hayabusa faced
Koji Nakagawa in a 1/4* flat match in Hayabusa's first match since the
Kawasaki Stadium show. Hayabusa has been dubbed the Japanese Sabu and this
match made it clear that that is because he does some nice spots and is
very sloppy. Not a good match (Dave Meltzer, in Japan at the time, seeing
this match live, gave it a DUD). Wing Kanemura won the Independent World
heavyweight championship in a tournament final win over Masato Tanaka. This
was a fair-to-good match, which I rated **1/2, easily the best
(almost-)legitimate match that FMW has done that I have seen. They did more
moves than I would have given them credit for, so it was a pleasant
surprise, but there was no crispness in execution and the final minutes
were filled with power bombs. One gets the impression of watching two indy
wrestlers push themselves to their limits, with the usual cracks in the
math appearing as a result. Meltzer gave this ***1/4. Terry Funk faced Mr.
Pogo is a garbage match on top. This is the match where Pogo took the
paralyzing bump into the barbed wire land-mine area and Funk tried to light
him on fire. Funk did his most honest interview ever at the end, saying,
"Pogo is dead! Onita is dead! FMW is dead! FMW has no wrestlers! Pogo is a
piece of shit!" and stuff along those lines; if only he'd realize that by
wrestling those horrible wrestlers, he's tarnishing his own legend, IMO.
Funk is 52, so, in a sense it is not surprising to see him do this garbage.
Sanjay tells me that somebody in r.s.p-w rated the Tanaka vs. Kanemura
match was in his top 10 of 1996 world-wide, a ludicrous statement even if
you bump Meltzer's rating up a 1/2*. All Japan is apparently going to work
a show with the FMW guys; this match convinced me that these two FMW guys
likely won't embarrass themselves against mid-level All Japan guys, but I
don't see any matches between FMW & All Japan, in Baba's incredibly
legitimate style, being as good as the typical mid-card All Japan match.
Michinoku Pro rounds out the Japanese video watching. A commerical tape
highlight the British tour on 02/05/96 & 02/06/96, featuring matches in the
smallest ring you'll ever see. Tiger Mask was billed as "Sammy Lee Jr.,"
the son of the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama, who wrestled in England
as Sammy Lee. After the very good main even trois match on 02/06, a British
kid was caught on camera for an interview saying, "Best match I've ever
seen! Japanese people can wrestler; the British can't!" He wished he could
move to Japan to watch wrestling all of the time.
I've got a stack of other Michinoku Pro stuff to get through, featuring
mostly older commercial tapes from a friend in Japan. The first of those
tapes had two commercial tapes on it, one focusing on early 1996, the other
on late 1995. The highlight in the 1996 portion was an incredible ****1/4
trios match, featuring Taka Michinoku & El Gran Naniwa & Super Delfin vs.
Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV & Shiryu. There are some other good matches,
like Sasuke & Delfin vs. Dick Togo & Shiryu and Gran Naniwa vs. Sasuke, the
latter with Naniwa's first ever singles win over Sasuke after an incredible
Frankensteiner from the top turnbuckle to the hardwood floor at ringside.
I've also watched a second Michinoku Pro tape, this one composed of three
commercial tapes. The first portion looks at the Jinsei Shinzaki (Hakushi)
vs. Great Sasuke feud from 08/93 to 04/94. It all builds to the two big
matches between these guys, the first a **** double knock-out on 03/31/94
and the second the famous ****1/2 04/29/94 re-match. The second portion of
the tape looks at the Super Delfin vs. Sato feud from the same period. They
had a wonderful mask vs. mask match at the end of 1993. There was a
tremendous ****1/2 trios match on 02/04/94, with Delfin & Shinzaki & El
Gran Naniwa vs. Sato & Sasuke & Shiryu. It built to a hair vs. mask match
on 03/04/94. Of course, Sato first lost his mask and then lost some of his
hair. The third portion of the tape looks at various other matches. Sasuke
vs. Dos Caras from 06/04/93 was surprisingly okay, and Delfin vs. Sasuke
from 08/24/93 was a fun match taped in a small studio. The final match on
the tape was FMW's Atsushi Onita vs. Great Sasuke from 10/30/94 in a double
hell death match. After loads of *** and better Michinoku matches, it was
really disappointing to end this tape with a *1/2 match at best.
The third Michinoku Pro tape began with a lot of matches featuring Onita &
Mr. Pogo working poor matches with the Michinoku Pro wrestlers, and I
didn't have the desire to watch any more of it, so that's where I'll pick
up after I've submitted my thesis.
Once I've gone through a few more tapes, I'll add an update to the tape
list on the web.
[ - ] WCW has Uncensored on 03/16/97.
[ - ] WCW comes to Montreal, Quebec, making a rare visit to Canada, on
04/11/96. When the Amazing French Canadians joined WCW, it was with
the idea of running hybrid shows in Montreal. This show will feature
several matches involving wrestlers who are well-known in the city along
with some matches involving WCW wrestlers. Planned matches include:
* Giant vs. French Canadian Pierre in a "patch match," where each
wrestler wears an eye path
* Harlem Heat vs. Faces of Fear
* Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko
Ric Flair and Lex Luger are also supposed to be on the show.
[ - ] ECW has their first PPV on 04/13/97, airing from the ECW Arena from
9pm to 11:55pm. Tentative line-up includes:
* Sabu vs. Taz
* Terry Funk vs. Sandman vs. Stevie Richards in a triangle match for a
title shot against Raven later in the show
* Shane Douglas vs. Pit Bull #2 for the TV Title
* Great Sasuke & Gran Naniwa & Gran Hamada vs. Dick Togo & Taka
Michinoku & Terry Boy
Talk is that the PPV will end with Terry Funk winning the ECW title from
Raven and then inviting all of the fans into the ring to celebrate.
The affiliated (?) ECV is also rumoured to be trying to get on PPV.
[ - ] The WWF has WrestleMania on 03/23/97. Reports are that the WWF has
offered Dennis Rodman half-a-million bucks to be Goldust's corner,
possibly to set up the two as a tag team for SummerSlam. Apparently,
Rodman's NBA probation may bar him from being able to accept the offer.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 04/20/97.
[ - ] [Nitro ] beat [RAW ] on 02/03 with a 3.04 rating (4.6 share) against
a 2.64 rating (3.9 share). This was the first battle of two hour long
shows; the ratings are averaged for the two hours. The detailed ratings are
a click away.
[ - ] I will get the PPV figures updated by next week! Apologies. The
details as they stand are available.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 05/11/97.
[ - ] The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/08/97.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 07/06/97.
[ - ] The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/03/97.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 09/07/97.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 10/05/97.
[ - ] The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/09/97.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 12/07/97.
[ - ] WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The
wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history,
Japanese wrestling stuff, and other things.
[ - ] Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos. If
you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request.
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Thanks to: Masaki Aso.
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E-mail: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca